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David Anderson QC is coming to the end of his time as the government’s independent reviewer of terrorist legislation. And this morning he has decided to stir things up with an interview to the Today programme calling for a review and an overhaul of the controversial Prevent programme, which was set up to counter radicalisation. He said in Muslim communities it was almost seen as a “spying programme”.
He told the programme:
There is a strong feeling in Muslim communities that I visit that Prevent is, if not a spying programme, at least a programme that is targeted on them. In some cases it is even felt it is targeted not just Islamist terrorism or extremism, but at the practice of Islam. People who pray or who wear the veil, for example, are sometimes felt to be under suspicion.
Not, I’m sure those fears are exaggerated, and they are certainly not what the programme is supposed to be about, but the fact is that they are very real. So it is frustrating for me to see a programme whose ideals are obviously good falling down on the delivery to the point where it is not trusted in the community where it principally applies …
I would like to see three big changes. The first is much more transparency in terms of data, in terms of the underlying research, in terms of results, and some metrics for gauging success. Secondly, we need somebody or some group of people, completely independent of the programme, who can get in there, read the secrets, talk to everybody and report to parliament and to the public on how it is working. Then I think the third thing we need is better engagement from the government, including at national level, with the range of Muslim communities in this county. It is extraordinary to me that there is no dialogue, for example, between the government and the Muslim Council of Britain.
The government has to be more open about what it is doing, and it has to subject itself to some kind of independent scrutiny that can judge whether it’s effective or whether it isn’t.
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Sig Nordal 